In the end the European Parliament did not oppose the European Commission’s delegated act on the criteria for the designation of antimicrobials to be reserved for the treatment of certain infections in humans, on Thursday 16 September.
MEPs did not support the resolution (204 votes for rejection, 450 against and 32 abstentions) objecting to the delegated Regulation.
The motion to reject was tabled by Martin Häusling (Greens/EFA, Germany), which was supported by the Parliament Committee on Environment. These MEPs considered the proposed criteria to be too lax and called on the Commission to reconsider.
This will not be the case and the new provisions will come into force on 28 January 2022, as part of the new Regulation on veterinary medicine products.
“Crucial antimicrobials can now be selected and reserved for human medicine. This is a key step in the fight against antimicrobial resistance”, reacted European Commissioner for Health Stella Kyriakides after the vote.
On 9 September, the Commissioner had urged MEPs in Parliament’s Committee on Agriculture not to reject this delegated act (see EUROPE 12787/14).
On the same day, Parliament also validated another delegated act related to the EU Regulation on veterinary medicine products: the one banning the use of antibiotics as growth promoters in EU meat imports. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)